Whooh... You forget just how hot it is here in Arizona, until the AC stops working. And what perfect timing, Memorial Day weekend! Anyway, thanks to that, my productivity was less than normal, but I still managed to get a release done for today - AnalogX SayIt! SayIt is a speech synthesizer that outputs any word or phrase you type in to a WAV file you specify. Now you can add all of those cool computer voices to your songs, until your friends start begging you to stop. It's available right now in the download area, in the Misc Music Utilities section, so go grab it now.

    For all of the QDNS users out there, I have a new version available that is SIGNIFICANTLY faster than the previous... The improvement mainly takes place in the parsing of the log files, sorting, and searching, which took the majority of the time. In my tests, a log file which took 33 seconds to parse before now only takes 1.2 seconds, so that should give you an idea of the difference. That's the only real difference in this version, and it's available, as always, in the download area.

    Ok, I've got good news, and I've got bad news... The bad news? There isn't a new program this Friday. Yes, I know, it's hard to imagine that there could be any good news after such a horrible announcement, but I assure you there is... Notice the time I wrote this? I didn't just get up, I haven't gone to sleep yet - and can you guess why? That's right, because I've been programming... And updating...
    That's right, today was an UPDATE week! It began with Rhyme, on Tuesday, and continues today with the release of not just one, but TWO major updates, to two of the most popular utilities; AutoTune and ParisMIDI! So what's new? Let's take a look, shall we...
    New in version 2.0 of AutoTune: Stereo wav support, support for 24bit and 32bit MS and IEEE formats, integrated DC offset correction, integrated normalization, and progress meters, just to name a few. Sound like enough new things to warrant a 2.0? I do... I'd like to take a moment to extend special thanks to David Johnston over at Syntrillium for giving me all the info I needed to support 24/32bit files, just like the ones that CoolEdit outputs :)
    New in version 2.0 of ParisMIDI: MOTORIZED FADER SUPPORT! That's right, if you have a Yamaha Promix/01, you to can join the elite few who enjoy motorized faders - move a fader on the CS16, watch it move on the screen and on the Yamaha; move a fader on the screen, and watch the Yamaha fader move to match; move a fader on the Yamaha, and watch the fader on the screen track it. Sorry, but the CS16 fader won't be moving anywhere on their own, unless you rig up rubber bands on them or something :) Now you can record all of your fader movements into your sequencer of choice!
    Both of these updates, along with the Rhyme update, are available in the download area, and they even all sport the latest installers as well; nobody hooks you up like AnalogX!

    I don't know how many of you are aware of how active the site is, but it receives a very large number of hits (for a site that is exclusively filled with content written by one person), usually averaging around 4,000 to 5,000 hits per day; and it's been on a pretty steady increase. Today though, it broke through a big milestone for me, which is more than 10,000 hits within one 24 hour period; which is quite a bit better than my all-time high from before, which was 8817! I'm really happy about this, for me it's validation that people like what I'm doing, and are telling their friends about the site... I would like to take a second to thank everyone who has told other people about my site, and helped spread the word - I wouldn't be writing the programs and music that is up here if it wasn't for you! Once again, I'm really excited about this, and I'll be hooking up everyone with some great new utilities and plugins in the weeks, months, and years ahead. Unless the Y2K problem makes my computer blow up, but that's understandable, right? :)

    I've just finished a new version of the ever-popular 'AnalogX Rhyme' program! This new version features a copy to clipboard option, saving of parameters, as well as return triggering the rhyme. Forget those rhyming dictionaries and those lame companies that make you pay $80 or whatever for a program that does even less than mine! You see, I give you the first one for free... Then, once you're hooked on my utilities, I keep giving them to you for free! That's my trick! Pretty simple, eh? So feed your desire with this new download from who else, but AnalogX!

    ...as the life of the party! Woohoo! Behold the release of the latest DX plugin - AnalogX Vocal Remover! You want some audio clip from that new Underworld CD, but those crazy vocals are in the way? Just remove 'em! While not a perfect solution, it works in most situations, and with most styles of music. I know you can't wait to impress your friends and neighbors with your Karaoke skills, so the downloads area is prepped and ready to receive you! And don't forget, this tool can work great for getting at those sounds trapped behind vocals, for all you samplers out there.
    I'm also finishing up a new version of AutoTune, which should be available around the beginning of the next week, and will now have integrated DC offset correction! Just what the doctor ordered for maximum sample quality! Also in AutoTune news, it's been awarded the 'TOP' rating from MAZ , which is a great honor! It's almost like the Oscars of music utilities; perhaps I should make some sort of acceptance speech... I would like to take a moment to thank all the little people I stepped on over the years to achieve my lofty position... And to all those people who said I wouldn't make any money by giving away free software! Oh, wait a minute, I guess I haven't... Well, I have a 'TOP' award, and you don't - so there! heheheh :)

    Ok, if anyone was having problems with the DirectX Audio plugins, in a non-realtime program, there are new versions of the plugins available (except SampleSlide, which worked properly). The problem was that the plugins didn't terminate the stream properly (I primarily test them with the Ensoniq Paris and Microsoft GraphEdit, which both are realtime) and you needed to hit cancel when it was done. Not an overly big deal, but not as clean as it should have been. The updated versions are all available in the downloads area, and I would recommend grabbing them. If you have already registered a plugin, don't bother doing it again, but if you haven't, please do!

    Thanks to some assistance from MAZ , I was able to fix some problems AutoTune had with wave files that contained unknown data chunks; now it's all handled correctly! I also made a fix to Virtual Piano, which v1.05 was not updating the patch number correctly, so you needed to change channels to register patch changes. If you enjoy using either of these programs, or would like to check them out for the first time, they are available right now in the downloads area.